Summary of parashat Vaiejí
Jacob lived the last 17 years of his life in Egypt. Before he died, he asked Joseph to swear that he would be buried in the Holy Land. He then blessed Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, elevating them to the level of his own sons as the progenitors of tribes in the nation of Israel.
The patriarch wishes to reveal the end of days to his sons, but God prevents him. Jacob blesses his sons, assigning each his role within his tribe: Judah will produce leaders, lawgivers, and kings; priests will come from Levi, wise men from Issachar, sailors from Zebulun, schoolteachers from Simeon, soldiers from Gad, judges from Dan, and olive harvesters from Asher. Reuben is rebuked for having "confused his father's marriage"; Simeon and Levi for the massacre of Shechem and the plot against Joseph. Naphtali is endowed with the swiftness of a deer, Benjamin with the ferocity of a wolf, and Joseph is blessed with beauty and fertility.
A grand funeral procession consisting of Jacob's descendants, the Pharaoh's ministers, the most illustrious citizens of Egypt, and the Egyptian cavalry accompany Jacob on his final journey to the Holy Land, where he is buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron.
Joseph also died in Egypt at the age of 110. He, too, commanded that his bones be taken from Egypt to the Holy Land, but this would only occur with the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, many years later. Before dying, Joseph left the Children of Israel a testament from which they would draw hope and faith in the difficult years to come: "God will surely remember you and raise you up out of this land to the land He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.".
